This swim had to be short. I know there was a current. But, I don't swim that fast. Even with a current. When I saw the yellow buoy (marking the turn to shore), I thought there had to be a mistake. But, hey, I'll take it.

I lined up on the far outside for this swim, and went out farther and deeper than necessary. That got me out of some of the traffic, and also avoided the "sweeping the bottom" thing that I heard some people complain about. It was a little disorienting to be able to see the bottom while swimming. I'm used to the murky Madison lakes. And, there was enough traffic that I discovered that not sighting every other stroke meant I was going to get tangled with someone that was walking or dolphin diving or something. So, I said screw bilateral breathing, and just breathed every stroke and took a quick peek to see where I was each time. It worked.

I dunno if I would have done anything differently. I maybe could have pushed a wee bit harder, but I was trying not to peg the heart rate and just relax into this swim, and I felt like I did that. Oh, and I loooooved the full wetsuit. Oh yah, I can see why you folks where those things.

Getting a full wetsuit off is definitely not as easy as getting my shorty off. I had a nice long run up the beach to get the sleeves off, but getting the thing off my heels was a bit more challenging. And, I was a little dizzy from the waves in the water, so I sat down to put my socks and shoes on. I don't normally need to do that. But, it seemed expedient given the circumstances.

Long run with the bike and a bottle neck getting out of transition made for slow mounting. So it goes.

Practice getting the suit off if I'm going to use a full.

The bike is my weakness. I know this. So, I was trying to play it conservative. I kept the heart rate low and tried to keep the cadence high and just enjoy the ride. I got passed a LOT, but I also passed some people. I passed a girl on a hybrid and I told her she deserved a prize for doing an HIM on a hybrid bike. Some rough roads meant dodging lots of dropped gear - water bottles, under seat cages, aero bottles, C02 cartridges, gel packs - I saw it all out there. I saw evidence of crashes, and saw several people changing flats and I thanked my lucky stars that wasn't me.

At 16 miles in, AJ passed me. Dang. I told her I had no intention of keeping up and wished her a good race. She was followed shortly by Jen. It took a lot of discipline to let them both go. But, I knew I had a lot of biking ahead of me, and I didn't want to die at the end of it.

About 35 miles in, my stomach started complaining. Oh crap, thought I. But, 5 miles later it was fine again. Whew. This was also about the time that I realized I needed to pee. I wasn't gonna stop to do it. So, I honestly tried to pee on the bike. I tried - really I did! Didn't happen. *sigh* Stupid shy bladder.

About 45 miles in, I almost got taken out by a car, and I screamed "Duuude!" at the guy directing traffic, as I slammed on my brakes to avoid plowing right into said car as it was waved through the intersection. Dude directing traffic screamed at the next car to "stop stop stop." How do you not see a rider with a big ol' donkey on her chest coming at your intersection?

Somewhere around this point, AJ passed me again. Huh? What? How'd that happen? Turns out she stopped for the port-a-potty. Bye bye to AJ again, as she zoomed ahead of me. Then, I passed Jen. Or maybe it was before that. I dunno. It's all getting blurry about this point. I think I started counting down the miles somewhere around the half way point....

I think I rode this smart. I think I need to figure out a better nutrition plan, as I didn't get nearly enough calories in me. Maybe I should learn to drink sports drink. I think I got about 2 clif bars and 3 aero bottles of water consumed... I think. I'd chopped up 3 clif bars and I know I didn't finish them. I also took about 4 endurolytes, which seemed good considering it wasn't very warm.

Maybe if I did some training rides at more of a race pace I might be able to push harder in the race, eh?

Pretty happy with this one - ran in, racked bike, helmet off, shoes on, sunscreen sprayed, hat in hand - run!

I think this one went well.

Here's where things fell apart a little. I started out well - not sure of the actual pace, but it was the low 9's I think. Maybe even high 8's. I had some soreness in my lower legs coming off the bike, but nothing too bad. I grabbed a gel right out of transition and slammed that down. Stomach felt good, head felt good. About mile 4, my diaphragm started spasming. It was like a side stitch that went all the way across right under my ribs. I did some slow breathing, some deep breathing, some shallow breathing. I got it back under control, but it would return to haunt me.

I got through the first loop and was on pace to go just over 5:30. That blew my mind a little, and I could tell the second lap was going to hurt worse than the first. By now, the diaphragm was fairly well locked in spasm. So, I walked the 2 hills, then picked it up again. At one point some woman started running right behind me. She said, "sorry - but you're the perfect pace." She had a garmin or something that was beeping out the pace for her - beep, boop, beep, boop. ARGH! I saw an aid station up ahead and decided I'd either walk it or blow through it - whichever would let me lose her. She walked, I blew through it. The next aid station, I had to hit the port a potty. Getting going again was painful. Note to self - at that point in the run, just hold the pee.

After the turn around, my IT band started really complaining too. So, I resorted to a program of "run until you're in too much pain, walk 1 minute, run some more." I crossed the 10 mile marker thinking, "this last 5k is gonna suck." And, it did. But coming out of the zoo, I realized I was really really close and found I had a wee bit left in the legs if I could just ignore all the places that hurt, and I cruised down the hill, past the amazing donkey support crew, and through the finish line.

I dunno - what causes diaphragm cramps? Maybe I need more enduroyltes? Or maybe I need to do more core work. My stomach muscles hurt today pretty much all over. So, more core work should probably be on the agenda, eh? I don't think it was going out too fast, because cardio-wise and leg wise I didn't feel like I was dying.

I made my first ever visit to the med tent and got a big bag o' ice saran wrapped to my knee. Aaaaahhhhhh. Then, the family found me and I got lots of hugs and kisses and went back to cheer in the rest of donkeydom and hang with those that finished before me.


I think I slacked at the end of my training. I was doing great, but the last 3 weeks had been a steady taper. I think I needed to hold the intensity of training a little bit longer. But, overall, I'm super psyched about this race.


This is a great race - a perfect first HIM.